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The 1940s include 4 yeears of German occupation (1940-44) and the dofficult economic conditions following the war. The French Republic had secularized French schools in the 1870s. The NAZIs did not interfere with French schools except to fire Jewish teachers and search for Jewish children. The Vichy regime also implemented anti-Semetic policies did institute dreforms to strengthen the role of the Church in education. France was not heavily damaged during the German invasion (May-June 1940). There was much more damage as a result of Allied bombing (1942-44) and the liberation (June-August 1944). School portraits show that clothing varied widely. There were no uniforms except at a few private schools. Smocks were widely worn at some schools and not worn at others. We note a wide range of styles and colors. Most boys wore short pants. A few oldr bous wore knickers. We see some boys wearing berets during the Wr,but for some reason berets rpidly went out of style after the War. Children clothes were hard to obtain during the ccupation and the period after the War when the economy was recovering.
We do not have much information on the 1940s. We note the school in 1940-41 was much smaller than shown in the school portraits of the 1930s. France was defeated by the Germans and much of the country occupied (June 1940). We assume that the reduced enrollment had something to do with the German occupation. We have no information as to what happened at the school during the War (1939-45). We do note that the enrollments recovered after the War. Boys during the
1940s still laragely wore suits to school. We note, however, that a substantil number of boys wear leisure jackets rather than suit coats.
All we know for sure about the school is that the photograph was taken in 1941 during the Vichy/NAZI occupation era (figure 1). We do not know the name of the school or even where the school was located. The age of the children show that it was a primary school. The teacher looks to be a Catholic cleric. This could mean that it was a Catholic school and the statue of Jesus in the background confirms that it is. Many of the boys wesr smocks, but they do not seem to have beem required as mny others wear sweaters and jackets. We note many different styles of front and backbuttoning smocks. There are also different colors. All of the boys seem to be wearing short pants. The boys have all carefully combed their hair.
Here we see what looks like a French village school group. At leas] one of the boys wear a school smock. A dealer tells us that this group was photographed in 1943 by a soldier. If the date is right and given their expression, it probably means a German soldier. It looks like thy are outside their school. The furniture looks like school furniture. We are not sure why it is piled up outside. There is a game for the children knoockin over tin cns in the background. Click on the image to see the building.
The Ecole Champagne appears to have been a girls school, although there were boys in the maternele class. This appears to be a Catholic school rather than a regular state primary school. We know nothing about the school other than it was operating in 1945. The school may have been located in the town of Champagne. The image here is the complete school. The younger children in the front tow are in the maternelle class. We note many of the boys in the maternelle class during 1945 wearing romper suits. Maternelle was comparable to kindergarden or nursery school. The girls seem to be wearing dresses rather than smocks. Perhaps our French readers will know something about the school
A photograph of the boys at a primary school in 1947 show them receiving their prizes for superior work. The boys wear a wide variety of clothes, including smocks, sailor suits, and suits. Boys wear both shoes and sandals. Most boys wear ankle socks, but a few boys wear white kneesocks.
I am not sure about the name of the school, but the image is labeled Zouioueche. I think this may be the name of the school, although I am not sure. It also does not look very French. Perhaps this is a North African school. Most of the boys, however, look French. This is a CP class, the etry level class. The portrait was taken in 1947. The children wear a range of outfits. Most wears shirts and short pants. A few boys wear suit jackets. Several boys wear smocks and some wear romper pants. The boys wearing romper pants also wear sweaters, so it is difficult to tell what kind of rmper outfits are ivolved, we suspect that they are wearing suspender rompers.
We have an interesting image from the Ecole Jean Mace in 1949. We are not entirely sure what kind of school it was. The children in the photograph are nursery school children participating in the end of the year celebration - les Flocons d'Avoine fettes de fin d'Annee. For this performance the boys wears rompers and the girls dresses. The outfits are coordinated in the same colors. Both the boys and girls wear some kind of fance white beret or cap. Presumaly they sang or performed in some way. Note they also have some kind of white feathers in their hands. Unfortunately we have no details.
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